The film begins with a year having passed since Lithuanian men’s national basketball team won the bronze medal at the 2010 at the World Championships in Turkey showing the mass celebrations that ensued . This time, Lithuania is hosting the 2011 Eurobasket and the goal is nothing less than Lithuanian victory in the tournament. The prize here is two open spots to be able to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games in London this year.
Training camp is in the idyllic setting of Druskininkai, Lithuania home to a world class spa facility. Around twenty of the best basketball players in the entire country are there training. Kęstutis Kemzūra, the coach of the team must make the decision to ultimately choose the twelve best for the roster to compete in the tournament. This difficult task is one he doesn’t take lightly. From the brash young talent ,twenty year-old Jonas Valančiūnas to the seasoned veteran Šarūnas Jasikevičius he has the tough task of choosing the perfect team.
Another major theme of the movie is the coaching style of Lithuanian coach Kemzūra. The movie’s title ‘Mes už Lietuvą’ literally means “We are for Lithuania”. The coach has his players chant this phrase loudly after every team huddle. This unselfishness is a major part of his philosophy. Every single player takes this bestowed honor very seriously. The training sequence in the movie is quite physically grueling but it is punctuated by some lighthearted, joking moments which make the film more personalized and interesting. To help him deal with the wide range of players , Kemzūra employs ‘Juozukas’, an older guy who assumes the role of grandfather of the team. He handles all of the physical and emotional problems of the players. This is not an easy task. Everyone on the team has a great respect for him.
The film continues on to the Eurobasket tournament in various Lithuanian cities like Panavėžys, Klaipeda, Kaunas , and Vilnius where the games will be played. The film becomes sort of a docudrama at this point, cataloging the ups and downs of the team. It goes from the preliminary games to the finals. Some proud moments include victory in the preliminaries over the number-one ranked Spanish team in the new Kaunas Arena. The strong Lithuanian team dispatches several other contenders such as Greece, Turkey, and Slovenia and Serbia, but also loses a couple of close games to the likes of , Russia, Macedonia, France and Spain. Overall the Lithuanian team finishes fifth after a heartbreaking loss to a ferocious Macedonian squad in an extremely close match. The team comes back to defeat the tough Slovenian squad to get the bittersweet fifth spot, still outside of the running for clinching an Olympic spot.
After every match we pan to the locker room where coach Kemzūra emphasizes the exact same philosophy win or lose. After a great victory(such as Spain) he calmly congratulates his players, but reminds them that they have a long way to go. After a heartbreaking loss, he doesn’t yell at or berate the players but again, calmly reiterates the “Lithuanian way” of basketball. The core tenets of this approach are such. Always give all your heart to the team, there is no room for crybaby stars trying to pad their individual stats. If there is an action you can do on the court that will help the whole team, do it. If there is an action that doesn’t advance the team, don’t do it. Everyone gets knocked down, the important thing is getting back up and always fighting back. No one player is above the team. These are his litmus tests of character which build his guys into a tight-knit fighting unit that is more like a family , living together from beginning to end. In a way, it is quite symbolic of Lithuanian history. This country knows about getting knocked down but it also is quite aware of how to get back up again and keep on fighting.
The film ends with a happy crowd outside Siemens Arena in Vilnius seeing off their heroes. It’s not over for the team, their fifth place finish earns them the right to play in Venezuela this July for the last chance to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The Kemzūra philosophy will yet again very soon be put to the test. This time the Lithuanian team must succeed. Anything less than a spot in the Olympic tournament will be spirit-crushing to all three million Lithuanians worldwide. Lithuania has always competed strongly in all five Olympics. They have won three bronze medals since they became an independent country in 1991. So I guess the title of the film sums it up best. The Lithuanian basketball team is truly “For Lithuania” in every way. The national pride of this small country depends on what these twelve men do on the court.
